Category Archives: Weight Watchers

As we sit and wait for our umpteenth snow storm of the season, may I suggest a recipe that I’ve devised for my family incorporating some of our favorite ingredients? Tomorrows forecasted cold and snowy start might be more bearable with some warm Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal, and it can even be made the night before to save time.

Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal

1-2 bananas (ripe, sliced for bottom)

2 cups of old-fashioned oats

1 generous tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk (half the calories of skim) but you can use any type of milk desired

2 egg whites (I keep the liquid ones on hand for things like this when Im trying to do low-fat baking)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Spray deep pie dish with non-stick spray

3. Slice and layer the bananas on the bottom of the dish

4. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and place in pie dish.

5. At this point you can refrigerate overnight or bake immediately for about 30-35 minutes or until set, but not over baked or it will be dry.

6. Serve with warm milk of your choice, sliced bananas if desired and drizzle with a bit of additional peanut butter (non-negotiable ;).

* A couple of side notes-if prepared as above, this recipe has 5 WW PointsPlus (when the dish is cut into 8 servings and not including how much peanut butter you add to the top ;). Sometimes I make this recipe with 1 1/2 times the ingredients to make it a bit thicker, this would however increase the points value.

Good morning friends! Yes, I am eating dandelion greens this morning! I am a proud member of my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, called Sandhill Family Farms. Each week from spring through fall I get a weekly basket of fresh, locally grown beautiful veggies! I try to make a game out of trying to figure out how to use everything each week so my waste is minimal. Each week I get a nice variety of items, some familiar some not. Last week, we received dandelion greens, a member of the chicory family. As many of you know, I have a love of sauteing greens, like spinach, chard, etc and serving over my favorite farm fresh eggs. So, today I put another spin on that and sautéed my dandelion greens.

I put the bacon grease in my non-stick pan and saute the ham bits, add the greens and saute until slightly wilted. I can hear the gasps through the computer! Yes, bacon grease bad for you, BUT its a very small amount and on the rare occasions that we do have bacon, I keep a small container under my sink to collect the grease. My kids think it’s totally gross, but this habit goes back long ago from my childhood when my babysitter, Irene, used to save the bacon grease to make homemade Chex Mix, which I still do today too! Put the greens on your plate and use the pan to cook your eggs to your liking. I prefer either sunny-side up or over-easy so you get that nice runny yolk to dip your toast into. Top with the fresh chives. Again, I urge you to try farm fresh eggs if you have the chance to, they are absolutely superior in taste.

I served my eggs and greens with my favorite Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Bread. My favorite bread is low-cal, packed with whole grains, protein and is only 1 Weight Watchers PointsPlus per slice!!!! Give it a try, you’ll be happy you did!

Bon Appetit and I’m ready for the next challenge…we received some baby turnips this week!

As promised, here is the recipe for these super yummy and very filling Morning Glory Muffins! I love this kind of muffin and I’ve revamped this one to make it a healthy, low-fat 4 PointsPlus per muffin option! You could easily add nuts to this recipe, but it will raise your PointsPlus numbers, and since my daughter has a serious tree nut allergy, you’ll notice I do not bake with any nuts in my recipes. My next endeavor is re-working a nut-free granola recipe…stay tuned for that!

If you need a hearty, wholesome treat, I would recommend this choice:)

Mix the wet ingredients together and add the dry ingredients. Do not overmix. Stir in the add-in ingredients. Line 12 muffin cups with liners. Divide batter among the cups. Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 23-25 minutes or until set. Makes 12 muffins.

I love a warm breakfast on a cool morning and this one will make you feel like your indulging, but without any guilt. The recipe is a slight variation of the Blueberry Baked Oatmeal I made on Saturday, this one is equally as good, especially if you like pumpkin! I really enjoyed it as did my kiddos and I think you will too :)

I love oatmeal, baked, boiled, overnight…you name it, I like it! I found a recipe that I adapted to make even healthier and it was so yummy, we polished off the pan very quickly. It almost tasted like a blueberry coffee cake, but for only 3 measly Weight Watchers PointsPlus per serving you can easily indulge without guilt!

2. Zest lemon and set aside. Add lemon juice to the milk to form a “buttermilk”.

3. Wisk together oats, baking powder, salt, spices and lemon zest.

4. In another bowl, blend milk, egg and sugar.

5. Spread half the oat mixture into the baking dish, top with half of the blueberries. add remaining oat mixture and scatter remainder of blueberries on top. Pour the milk mixture on top.

6. Bake about 40 minutes and until top is slightly brown and mixture is “set”.

I served with a little steamed milk and topped with a drizzle of maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar. I cut the 8×8 pan into 9 servings to yield 3 WW PointsPlus. Next time I make it I will try to make ahead the night before and bake in the morning.

Good morning and Happy New Year friends! On New Years Day I made some yummy healthy oatmeal pancakes that were low in fat, high in protein and actually contained no flour. I was a bit skeptical, I wasn’t trying to make a flour-free pancake, but the ground oats worked very nicely. The pancakes were thick and moist and had the flavor of an oatmeal cookie. You could add blueberries to the batter or I added some mini chocolate chips for some of the kiddos. Instead of syrup, I took some blueberries straight from the freezer, put into a Pyrex measuring cup and microwaved until hot and bubbly. They make their own “syrup” simply by heating and require no sugar. The kids enjoyed the pancakes and Allison said to me “mom, these were SO good, I didn’t even know they were healthy!” Here’s the recipe!

Frozen blueberries-simply warm in the microwave until hot and bubbly, pour over finishes pancakes

In a food processor or blender, whirl all the dry ingred

ients together until a “flour” like consistency is reached. Fold wet ingredients into the dry and let batter sit for about 5 minutes. While batter rests, warm up griddle. Using a non-stick spray, grease the griddle. Ladle batter onto griddle and cook until pancake sets up and is browned on the bottom. Flip and repeat. Can also dust with powdered sugar.
Serve with the warmed blueberry “syrup” or your favorite topping.

This recipe made about 12 pancakes using a 1/4 measuring cup. Per my calculations, each pancake at that size would be 2 Weight Watchers PointsPlus.

Last Friday I achieved my goal! 20 pounds gone since March 1st!!!!!!! It was weigh in day…and yes, I have been a closet Weight Watchers member. The only person that really knew I was on this journey was my dear husband. It wasnt necessarily a secret, I just felt I would be more successful if I just did it and not talked about it. I was very skeptical when joining this program. After all, I have young kids in the house, I really do not like to focus on my weight or a number on the scale. I really think “diet” is a four-letter bad word. Mostly, I love to eat, and thought how could this possibly work? But, I had decided it was time to drop some pounds, something I had wanted to do for a long time. Having 4 babies in 7 years was a bit tough on the body. I had also suffered from plantar fasciitis in both of my feet for almost a year. I went through months of physical therapy, icing, electronic stimulations, massage, and with the help my wonderful physical therapist, I am now pain-free. Those months with limited exercise certainly didn’t help my situation and for some reason last March, I decided it was time. I actually lost the first 10 pounds by myself , by literally working my tail off and tracking my intake religiously. I upped the ante on the workouts, became best friends with the elliptical, walked miles and miles and regularly did weight lifting. I used an app on my iPhone to track calories. This tracking became very eye-opening. I thought I knew what I was eating, but until I actually recorded EVERYTHING, I really had no idea.

Summer arrived and I felt I hit a plateau, I joined Weight Watchers to help me finish off my goal. The plan basically gives you a set amount of “PointsPlus” to consume based on your weight and height. What I like best about the program is the ETools program you can use online and on the smart phone. I mainly use it on my phone, but it’s basically a tracking program. I also like the plan because it’s not a restrictive “diet” or something where I had to purchase or only eat certain foods. I’m a foodie after all, I wouldn’t like being told I couldn’t eat something. I still eat everything I want to, just in limited quantities. It’s really just held me accountable. This summer Weight Watchers came out with an activity monitor called ActiveLink. It monitors all of your activity in a day and gives you a goal for each day. You can actually see how much your moving and I could get a better idea of the physical activity I was getting. Being the digital girl I’ve become, I surprisingly loved all this tracking and monitoring!

I’ve met my Weight Watchers goal and have maintained it for 6 weeks. Yahoo! I’m pretty proud of my accomplishment! That makes me a “lifetime” member at Weight Watchers, which means, the program is now free for me, even the Etools! I think that’s pretty awesome too. I am not an official “spokeswoman” for Weight Watchers, but I’m here to say it works and it’s a pretty great program. My journey has really just confirmed things that most of us know already, I just needed some reminding. Moderation and movement, it’s really just a lifestyle, about making healthy choices. I will feature recipes on my blog from time to time that I have made PointsPlus calculations on and I will continue to look for tasty and healthy recipes to share with you and your family.